Organizations and social movements that are part of ÓSócioBio, including ISPN, participated in a hearing at the Senate Environment Committee, this Wednesday (22)
Oswaldo Braga de Souza and Roberto Almeida, from ISA, with information from Agência Senado.
At a hearing in the Senate Environment Committee, this Wednesday (22), civil society organizations and social movements that are part of the Observatory of the Economy of Sociobiodiversity (ÓSócioBio) denounced the negative impacts on traditional peoples and communities of the environmental dismantling by the Jair Bolsonaro government and the lack of public policies to expand the economic production of these populations.
Comprising ISPN and other organizations, ÓSócioBio also presented a document with recommendations for the next elected president to stimulate the socio-biodiversity economy. So far, the delivery of the document to the government program coordination of Luís Inácio Lula da Silva has been confirmed.
“The sociobiodiversity economy is one of the ways to address the worsening of climate change scenarios, the loss of biodiversity, water and food insecurity, and the increase in social inequalities,” states the text.
Protection of territories
“Unfortunately, the context in which we are living does not demonstrate a very favorable moment for this socio-environmental agenda in the country,” lamented Dione do Nascimento Torquato, executive secretary of the National Council of Extractive Populations (CNS), at the hearing.
He stressed that the economy of forest products depends on the official recognition and protection of Indigenous Lands and Extractive Reserves – something that has not been done under the Bolsonaro administration. "The biggest reflection of this sad reality is the numerous cases of territorial and land conflicts, the deaths of activist leaders in the countryside, and the massive invasion of our traditional territories for collective use," he continued.
Torquato also advocated for the resumption of policies dismantled by the federal administration that supported the production of traditional peoples and communities in the past, such as the National School Feeding Program (PNAE), the Food Acquisition Program (PAA), and the Minimum Price Guarantee Policy for Socio-biodiversity Products (PGPM-Bio).
"Traditional communities, quilombola communities, and indigenous communities, who are true defenders of the environment, are fulfilling the role of the State, but they are being decimated. There's no other way to put it. They are being decimated by anti-environmental, anti-life policies," reinforced Senator Fabiano Contarato (Workers' Party-ES), who chaired the hearing.
Torquato, Contarato, indigenous people, and others who spoke at the hearing lamented the murders of journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous rights activist Bruno Pereira, linking them to the context of invasions of protected areas, land conflicts, and violence resulting from the Bolsonaro government.
Ppublic policies
“[Support is needed in] everything that involves guidance so that things happen as they should. Because there is a lot of legislation, a lot of bureaucracy, a lot of obstacles. Having people, having a team, having public policies that allow people to support the ventures is of utmost importance,” argued Dionete Figueiredo, from the Sustainable Family Farming Cooperative based on Solidarity Economy (Copabase), in Arinos (MG). [[See video below].
“Besides the second, and no less important [support], which is access to credit. Without credit, it is not possible to develop these projects,” she continued. “The market is cruel, it doesn’t allow for error. In our ventures, we don’t have access to public credit policies. We hand everything over to the bank, which gives an unfavorable response. That’s our reality,” she said. She called for the resumption of official initiatives for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (Ater).
At the hearing, Jeferson Camarão Straatmann, facilitator of Socio-environmental Diversity at ISA, argued that socio-biodiversity products cannot be treated merely as inputs and raw materials, but must be considered for their potential to generate knowledge and innovation, and require differentiated and adapted regulations and incentives.
"We need to move away from this logic of input providers to a logic of economies that innovate based on traditional knowledge, develop technologies and solutions for health, fashion, food, governance, economic models, and management, and provide services that deliver ecosystem benefits to the entire planet," he argued.
"Local and territorial arrangements and their management must have specific management and regulatory policies and programs that view these arrangements from a different perspective than private sector regulations," he commented.
'Information blackout'
Professor and researcher at the University of Brasília Mônica Nogueira drew attention to the difficulty caused by the lack of systematized data on traditional peoples and communities.
"We have fragmented, dispersed information regarding traditional peoples and communities in Brazil, their territories, and the conflicts they face. And, even more so, information about what they produce, how their production circulates, and how it energizes the local economy," he noted.
"The information blackout naturally hinders the development of appropriate public policies that consider the specificities of the sociobiodiversity economy. And worse, it marginalizes this economy and its stakeholders," he added.
Researcher and professor Ricardo Abramovay from USP reiterated that there is a lack of research and data on the bioeconomy for the Amazon and Cerrado biomes, despite the sector's economic and socio-environmental importance. He reported that, according to available data, the sector accounts for 5% of the US GDP, which is around US$1 trillion.
"Brazil, especially in the Amazon, practices an economy of nature destruction. We need an economy of nature knowledge," he emphasized. "The economy of nature destruction has not fostered development in the Amazon. The Amazon today is the part of Brazil with the worst social indicators, where the law is systematically disregarded, and institutions fail to fulfill their role, especially under a government of fundamentalist fanatics that encourages violence, disrespect for the law, and the invasion of protected areas," he commented.
What is sociobiodiversity?
The concept of sociobiodiversity was developed through research that confirmed the role of small farmers, peasants, indigenous peoples, and traditional communities in preserving and promoting ecosystem biodiversity. It encompasses the relationships between this biological diversity and the knowledge, information, and practices regarding its use and conservation developed by these populations over centuries and even millennia.
In general, the socio-biodiversity economy refers to non-timber products generated from the sustainable exploitation of various biomes. Some well-known examples in Brazil are: açaí, Brazil nuts, pequi, babassu, carnauba, andiroba, copaiba, piaçava, and derived products (food, medicines, cosmetics, essences, oils, etc.).
Biodiversity
Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the variability of living organisms from all sources, including, among others, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems, and the ecological complexes of which they are part. It also encompasses diversity within species, between species, and among ecosystems.
Traditional peoples and communities
A National Policy for the Sustainable Development of Traditional Peoples and Communities conceptualizes these populations as “culturally differentiated groups that recognize themselves as such, that have their own forms of social organization, that occupy and use territories and natural resources as a condition for their cultural, social, religious, ancestral and economic reproduction, using knowledge, innovations and practices generated and transmitted by tradition”.
In addition to Indigenous peoples and quilombolas, rubber tappers, riverside dwellers, caiçaras, gypsies, beradeiros (beaders), babassu coconut breakers, geraizeiros (geraizeiros), sertanejos (sertanejos), and pasture communities and closures, among others, can be considered a fundamental part of the sociocultural diversity of Brazilian society. There are at least 27 different segments recognized by the State, according to Decree No. 8.750 / 2016, which establishes the National Council of Traditional Peoples and Communities.